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How to Detect Leaking Furnace Gas Valves

A furnace gas leak can be a very dangerous and should be dealt with immediately. You would want to fix this gas leak to reduce the chances of the explosion and carbon monoxide poisoning.

You can use soap spray as a toxic gas detector; here is a guide to help you find your leaking furnace gas valve.

Observation

Observed radiation is one of the best ways to detect a gas leak, apart from smelling mercaptin. Look for rust on the black pipe or gas line, look at the joints to see their conditions, and look at the fittings to make sure that they are tight.

You can always use a flashlight and a mirror to look in those hard-to-reach places.

You can also check the colour of the flames on the furnace. What you want to see is a nice blue flame, any other colour could be the results of a gas leak.

Where should I look?

Gas valve leaks usually will occur around joints and fittings.

It is very unlikely that damage in a straight black pipe will cause any kind of gas leaking, as this would be very unusual.

When looking for a possible gas leak, always start looking at the pipes going towards the furnace, by ending the search at the pilot tube and burners.

Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide is easy to detect in a gas furnace leak. You should purchase a carbon monoxide detector and you should place it near the furnace mechanical room.

These devices will alert you automatically, whenever it detects a high level of carbon monoxide in your house.

Always remember to check to make sure the detector has a full battery charge and is located close to the furnace room.

Soap spray

If the gas valve looks good, and you can't seem to smell any gas. Try a soap solution to help detect the gas leak.

This is very easy to do, just mix some normal dish soap and a bottle with some water and dump it on the fittings you think the gas leak is coming from.

This method may be a very simple solution but I will tell you, as a technician, it is very effective. You are looking for bubbles to appear and if you see bubbles appearing, then you know you have a gas leak.

Specialty equipment

You can go out and buy yourself a gas detector, that can find leaks around your furnace. There is one problem with these detectors, they're not always the most dependable equipment to detect all leaks.

But you can adopt them into your practice for finding large leaks or even confirming leaks that you expect.

Professional service

If you cannot find the gas leak, then you should call a professional technician in for a second opinion.

The one benefit of having professional in is that they will find the problem and they will fix it straight away

The downfall to this is the price, and if they don't find anything than you've just spent your money on nothing.

Combine Techniques

If you are having troubles detecting the gas leak but you can smell the gas, try using all of the methods combined, mentioned above.

None of these tactics will catch all leaks if you are only using them by themselves, but if you combine all of these tactics into one, you have a much better chance of solving your problem. Using more than one method will always ensure that you don't accidentally miss a gas leak without fixing it.

Safety

The phrase that I like the most in the movie, with Will Ferrell, called "Elf", says "safety doesn't take a holiday".

So when you discover the leaky gas valve, the first thing you need to go and do is turn off the furnace. This will decrease any chance of any kind of accident happening. If you detect carbon monoxide you should immediately open up all windows and call a repair man in ASAP.